Communication Services for Businesses

Corporate Focus PR Pty Ltd is a public relations consultancy that has been looking after the communications needs of businesses in Australia and New Zealand for the past 15 years.

It is operated by Tony Benner who has held managerial positions in the public relations, advertising, marketing and media liaison areas of the financial services industry.

Clients of Corporate Focus PR are from the areas of Tourism, Health, Fitness, Financial Services and Professional Services.

Tony was a Fellow and a Past-President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (NSW).

Corporate Focus PR can produce a social media campaign, write your marketing plan, produce employee or client newsletters or help launch a new business.

Whatever the need, Corporate Focus PR is there to assist and guide today's businesses. It can also provide strategic public relations advice for senior management of Australian corporations.

Please call for an obligation-free discussion about your communication requirements.

SERVICES:

Corporate Newsletters
Social Media Campaigns
Corporate and Marketing Communications
Strategic Public Relations Advice for Senior Management
Environmental Issues
Public Relations Advice for new and existing Businesses
Issues/Crisis Management
Media Relations

CONTACT:
Tony Benner, Managing Director
Corporate Focus PR Pty Ltd
Telephone: +612 9279 1194 or +61 407 366 140
Box Q204, Sydney, Australia, 1230
pr@corpfocus.com.au

Managing Rumours

Get Your Email Marketing Ready for 2011

For email marketers, there only appeared to be one major trend that mattered in 2010. It's a game changer that presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses to connect with customers. You guessed it: It's the impact of social media. You can't just "talk at" customers anymore. They now expect to be part of the conversation and part of your business story. Social media has irrevocably changed the email marketing landscape.

Persuading readers to share the content of your email content is the key here. This is accomplished by providing content that demonstrates you're in touch with what's important to customers and you provide information that not only solves their problems, but also entertains them and asks for their feedback and participation.

Email marketing and social media are complementary. While email offers a way to directly contact your customers via their inboxes, social media provides new ways to share your content and engage in conversations with networks of people. One without the other is an incomplete solution to your marketing needs.

Click here to find out more!

As you plan your email marketing campaigns for 2011, take advantage of the opportunities to reach new prospects, revive existing customer relationships and recruit new fans who can spread the word about your business.

Here are five things you can do to create a more social e-mail experience in the new year:

   1. Make every message shareable. Include a Like/Tweet button or a social share bar in every email newsletter. The "Forward to a Friend" feature lets subscribers share your newsletter with another person by email. But by adding social icons at the top of your e-mail, those same people can now share it with their entire Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks. That extends your reach to a highly qualified audience of prospects.

   2. Kick-start your social presence using your email marketing list. Invite e-mail subscribers to connect with you on social networks. Include links to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages in your e-mail marketing communications. Don't forget to provide reasons why subscribers should join you on social media destinations -- and how that experience will be different from your email communications.

   3. Include a "social call to action" in every email newsletter. Don't rely solely on social media icons and buttons to get readers to visit your social media outposts. Entice readers with a link to a hot conversation you want to continue on Twitter (or another discussion destination), or to an exclusive contest or survey you're featuring on Facebook.

   4. Solicit feedback and find newsletter content. Use crowdsourcing on social media sites to find out what topics are trending with your customers. Invite questions and feedback, and join the conversation. Then use the frequently asked questions and the feedback gathered as material for newsletter content. At the same time, spark a conversation and continue it via email and social media. Don't forget to include and encourage social media feedback in every issue of your newsletter.

   5. Cross-post to all your communication channels. Always post your newsletter content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Keep conversations going by re-posting different snippets across social media channels. Even better, fan the discussion flames by sending out a separate email letting readers know about conversations happening on social media and inviting them to participate.

You may find one social media channel works better than others for sharing content and sparking conversation, depending on where your customers spend time. But you won't find out until you dive in, test the waters and monitor your results.

Email marketing has undergone some major changes since I first started working with small businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs many years ago. Today's opportunities for email marketers to share content and reach customers on social media were unimaginable back then. Now they're here -- so let's all take advantage and get the party started. 

Gail Goodman is the CEO of Constant Contact, a web-based provider of e-mail marketing, social media marketing and event marketing.

BNI: What is Your Company's Competitive Position?

This week, BNI's Founder Dr Ivan Misner suggests to find out how you stack up against your competition, take a little time to analyse your competitive status. This exercise will help you understand and emphasise your unique selling position.  How do you differ, and how can you position yourself for the best competitive advantage?
There’s no single formula for conducting a competitive analysis; it’s mostly just good business sense.  Try to stay aware of what your competition is doing and how your business stacks up against it.  For example:

• Are your prices and costs competitive? — Do customers who compare costs come back to you?
• Do you compete effectively in terms of product or service quality?
• Are you seen as the vendor of choice? — Why do people seek you out?
• Are you growing, losing ground or just holding onto your market share? — Are you waiting to see what will happen and hoping to react in time?

Staying competitive also implies being aware of trends and reacting to changes faster than your competitors. How will changes in technology and society affect the competition? Are your products or services more advanced than those of your competition? Do your competitors have the jump on you with online marketing/social media?
Understanding the driving forces in your industry — growth rates, shifts in buyer demographics, product and marketing innovations, the entry or exit of other competitors, changes in cost or efficiency and so forth — will make you a top competitor.
I highly encourage you to take some time this week to sit down and ask yourself the questions listed above.

Stand and Deliver!

BNI's Founder Dr Ivan Misner says whether you’re introducing yourself to an individual or to a group, you have a choice of how you deliver your message. The primary vehicle for your introduction is your verbal presentation. Does your introduction work?


People will judge not only the message, but the messenger as well. How you look, carry yourself, listen, and leave the conversation will affect what others do with the message you’ve delivered. The important thing to remember is to speak as if you’re addressing a single person, a good friend.

As you network with friends and associates and tell them what you do, your underlying hope is that they will use your services and pass the message to others, who will also use your services and in turn keep spreading your message.

When someone such as a strong or casual contact speaks on your behalf, the same rules apply. What you do and say sets the pattern for duplication. As in the “telephone game” you may have played as a child, you need to keep checking down the line to ensure that your original message is being accurately passed along. As you continue to build your word-of-mouth network, you need to know how much information your fellow networkers are actually hearing and understanding and, at times, you may need to make adjustments in the way you disseminate your message.

Each messenger may have used a different technique and had different motives for participating in the race, but the essence of each message is what needs to cross the finish line.

Assess Your Communications Strategies Now!

Sydney boutique public relations agency, Corporate Focus PR, is encouraging major companies to assess their communication strategies in the current economic and political environment.

Managing Director, Tony Benner, said major Australian companies cannot afford to sit back and be complacent whilst the environment in which they are operating is changing rapidly.

Corporate Focus PR is offering Chief Executive Officers of major corporations an independent and confidential assessment of their strategies.

"At the highest level, people like Rupert Murdoch are constantly making changes to their business plans as the global marketplace constantly changes," Tony Benner said.  "No business which wishes to survive can afford to sit tight and ignore the changing business patterns and communication advances."
Tony Benner

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PR & Word of Mouth Marketing

The rise of word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing is providing fresh impetus to public relations as a marketing tool.

As traditional media channels multiply, ‘clutter’ increases, consumers ‘turn off’, and marketers require new ways to ‘connect’ with those they want to sell to - it’s WoM – whose origins and techniques are interwoven with those of public relations - that is emerging as a potent force in marketing communication.

The Australian Financial Review recently reported that Australian marketers will pump about $A9 billion into media advertising this year, using television, newspaper, magazine, radio, outdoor and cinema ads to promote their public products and services.

“Creating a brand that consumers will recommend to their friends, family and colleagues is the holy grail of marketing.   “Nothing is more effective than a personal recommendation.  No consumer is more powerful than the brand advocate, those people who happily recommend brands”.

Many claim that WoM is an extension of traditional public relations techniques.  In fact many of the elements of a successful WoM campaign need to be driven by public relations. This is because public relations, which has always been about influencing opinion formers (such as media) and obtaining third-party endorsement, is the most knowledgeable and capable of the marketing service providers to manage the strategic implementation of a WoM campaign.